Why Consolidate Linux On IBM System P?

With the evolution of IBM's Power Systems server (formerly known as System p), the core differentiation of its feature/functionality has first and foremost centered on its sustained advantage in scaleable availability and scaleable performance versus both distributed x86 and other RISC and Itanium 2 competitors. However, System p can really no longer be called a Unix/RISC enterprise computing platform. IBM has now converged the System p and System i technologies into a single Power Systems Group, and its re-branded PowerVM technology is taking center stage as the "scaleable virtualization platform for your mission-critical Unix, Linux, and i5/OS applications." Using System p for running Linux workloads pulls on three core drivers: 1) Linux's ability to take advantage of the POWER6-based overall performance scalability; 2) its extreme reliability and availability features; and, most importantly, 3) System p's ability to benefit from PowerVM's affinity for consolidating and optimizing Linux workloads.